Showing results by narrator "Zachary Johnson" in All Categories

Orphaned and alone, Moss is happy to have found a place in the world. But his humdrum working routines take a terrifying turn when a mysterious woman breaks into his apartment and hands him a data chip from his dead parents. Suddenly hearing messages revealing his benevolent employer has a far darker side, he braves the dangerous megacity streets in search of the truth. Surrounded by outcasts and criminals and running on instinct, Moss stumbles onto a rebel group intent on exposing their corrupt oppressors.

They won't settle for mere victory. They want to exterminate us. Every last one of us. A surprise attack has sent the Star Alliance fleeing for its life. A remnant of a remnant, their meager fleet—all that remains alive—flees to what seems like a safe harbor: a forgotten backwater planet called Earth. Join ace fighter pilot Chase as he teams up with the modern-day militaries of Earth and fights the last battle for the universe.

It was never meant to be more than a dare: A party game. A dare. A single kiss. That’s all it took to flip my world upside down. I’ve always classified myself as straight, and as far as I can tell, so has he. I didn’t think one kiss would change that, but I was so wrong. Now, I can’t stop thinking about him. My best friend. Aspen. His taste is branded in my memory, his touch seared in my skin. And I want more. Which is why I start tossing out new dares. Riskier ones that toe lines we never thought we’d cross. But there’s so much more at stake here. Like my heart.

Grief. I’ve never battled with the raw, debilitating pain that comes with it. Then a twist of fate hits me out of nowhere, and I can barely keep from drowning. It’s like weights tied to my ankles in the middle of a raging ocean. I’m helpless, with no way to swim back to the surface. But fate is crueler still, bringing my stepbrother back for the first time in years.

The time has come to return to the Solis continent. With my mate at my side, my magic strong and fully born, Norivun and I venture back to the capital to fix all of the wrongs that have not yet been made right. But victory won’t come easily. Choices must be made. Lives will be lost. And in the end, only the true royals will rise.

I fell into the clutches of those hunting me. Now, I’m enslaved in chains and at their mercy. But I’m not the woman I used to be. My weaknesses have been stripped away, unveiling a strength and defiance I never knew myself capable of. And I’ll be damned if I’m going down without a fight. Because my mate is coming for me. With him by my side, we will be unstoppable, and I am a storm cloud of rage ready to be unleashed.

Hanna is devastated when just a few weeks before her wedding, her fiancé drops the bomb that he doesn’t want to marry her. With the wedding bought and paid for (and completely non-refundable!), she decides to give it away to a deserving couple. Hanna chooses a pair of strangers that fate seems to put in her path, and then embarks on rearranging the wedding details with the help of the new bride-to-be’s brother.

Three months. I just have to get through three months of resisting Avery's enticing lilac-and-rainwater scent. Then she'll be shipped off to Geneva and I can get to work forgetting her inquisitive eyes, infectious laugh, and tantalizing curves. It almost kills me to keep her at arm's length, but duty demands it. All of that changes, though, when a rare celestial event erupts strange, new power from Avery—a power that's determined to destroy her. Tasked with unlocking its secrets, I have no choice but to keep her close as I struggle to find her new magic's origins.

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

Arus Bor'vak understands machines better than people. He likes them better, too, so when human women begin to populate the Stryxian settlements, he finds it best to give them a wide berth. They’re beautiful, soft, and utterly incomprehensible, and none captures his attention like Keira Becker, the strong ex-lieutenant who makes him lose his tongue in her presence.

Honestly, how was I supposed to know that a love spell was actually a summoning spell...and that it would work? Now, I have five demons at my beck and call, their sole purpose to fulfill my heart's deepest desire - which is to make William Washington fall head-over-heels in love with me. Their solution? Insert themselves in every aspect of my life in order to make William jealous.

War-weary mercenary Leoric has traded his sword for a shovel, burying the undead blight that plagues the little town of Barrowdeep. Now he fights for the living instead of against them. Fae trickster Orphium travels from town to town, stealing human trinkets and memories through games of chance. He's desperate to fill the hollow in his heart, but the hunger never goes away. Barrowdeep is ripe for the picking, except the nosy local gravedigger keeps interfering. But when Leoric unearths an ancient fae artifact, Orphium knows he’ll stop at nothing to possess the powerful coin.

Rush is a Fae Guardian, a wolf-shifter whose enhanced abilities have made him a ruthless protector of Elphyne. His job is to protect the realm from the human enemy. But one night of weakness resulted in a curse worse than death – exile. Now he spends his lonely time longing to be part of the living, once again protecting them from monsters… until one mysteriously washes up on the shores of his lake. The only one to have miraculously seen him in decades, Clarke is the sunshine to his grump. But if he hands her over to the authorities, his curse will be broken.

Madison gave her heart to a boy at the age of 16, but all she got in return was a broken heart and a swollen belly. Alone with a baby and desperate for the love she hadn’t found, she turned to a man who sealed his claim of devotion with a diamond ring. He promised her a family. A life. A future. But his lies had only been a cover for the personal hell he introduced her to daily.

I've spent the better part of a decade trying to save the world. Twice a century, Mount Slate threatens to erupt, and for my entire life, the four families in charge haven't seemed to care about their impending doom. So it fell to me to try to fix things. To make peace. Me, a man whose greatest skill is pissing people off so much that they challenge me to a duel, and then killing them in that duel. Now the moment is here, and my clever stone is telling me that one man—a sweet, innocent, infuriating judgmental bastard—is the only one who's capable of saving the world.

I may be struggling as an artist in New York, but I'm a great doorman. Is it the easiest job in the city? Probably. And it gives my mind all the time it needs to wander. Sometimes to my current project or muse, but more often to the one who got away. I was the one he used to reach for in the middle of the night when the nightmares came. My adopted brother, once not much more than a stranger, became my closest friend during one of the most difficult times of his life.

I should have won the Rising Queen Trial. The crown that was destined to be placed upon my head now rests atop the vindictive witch who sought to steal my throne. Left with no choice, I flee from the Solis continent even though my heart is shattering at leaving my love behind. But I can’t return to Solisarium until I’ve reclaimed my affinities and am able to fight with the crown prince at my side.

After the untimely deaths of her aunt and mother, young Riley Mays moved from Chicago to her cousins’ Wisconsin farm. Here she found solace in caring for her extraordinary adoptive brother, exploring the surrounding wild nature, and gazing at the mystical moon - a private refuge in which she hides from her most painful memories. But ten years later, now twenty-one, Riley feels too confined by the protective walls she’s erected around herself. When a stranger enters her family’s remote world, Riley senses something he’s hiding, a desire to escape that she understands well.

He’s always there, watching and waiting. The golden-eyed wolf who refuses to leave me be. A part of me yearns for him. Another screams to run. My memories have been stolen, erasing any recollection of what we once were. Still, I can feel the magnetic pull of my soul to his, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that fate isn't through with us. Not yet. An ancient evil is on the hunt for me, bringing with it the threat of death. The only thing I know for sure? Wyatt and I have to work together if I’m going to survive.

Paterson, New Jersey, 1979: Jamie Palmieri is an up-and-coming patrol officer, three years out of the academy and frustrated with his slow rise to detective. That all changes one frigid night in January, when a double homicide at a local bar leaves the owner and a young woman dead.